


Walking on Eggshells

by eyebrowsatlarge



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 22:20:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9348857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyebrowsatlarge/pseuds/eyebrowsatlarge
Summary: From the moment Percival Graves is rescued, no one seems to be able to shake the pity from their faces. There’s some guilt there, too, as if they might have been able to do something if only they had noticed it wasn’t him. But he doesn’t really blame them for that. He was distant by design. Friends were a liability. The only person that might have noticed the change in him, though, is nowhere to be found. Written for a Tumblr prompt.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy! This can also be read on my Tumblr [here.](http://eyebrowsatlarge.tumblr.com/post/155940981737/can-i-request-a-drabble-about-graves-being-found)

From the moment Percival Graves is rescued, no one seems to be able to shake the pity from their faces. There’s some guilt there, too, as if they might have been able to do something if only they had noticed it wasn’t him. But he doesn’t really blame them for that. He was distant by design. Friends were a liability. The only person that might have noticed the change in him, though, is nowhere to be found.

When he asks Seraphina Piquery if she knows what happened to the young man from the Second Salemers in all that destruction at the church, all she can do is give him a mournful look and tell him there will be time to talk about Credence later. The fact that she even remembers his name is concerning enough.

So he goes to Tina Goldstein. Tina is the only other person he can think of (the only living person, anyway) that really knew Credence. She would know what happened to him. But when Percival asks, he can tell she’s holding in tears and that really doesn’t bode well. She looks like she wants to tell him but she can’t quite find the right words to say.

He doesn’t even _ask_ Queenie, but she’s always said she can read people better when they’re hurting and the concerned look she gives him every time she walks past him tells him that she can read him just fine.

The one who finally tells him is Newt Scamander. He hasn’t had much experience with the magizoologist, but he knows enough about him from talking with Theseus that he’s somehow unsurprised that Newt is the one to deliver the news. When he asks, Newt sits him down with a cup of tea and tells him exactly what happened. He tells Percival how hard he fought to save Credence, that Madame Piquery had ordered the aurors to attack, and when he’s finished he pats Percival on the hand and offers to refill his tea. Percival had thought from the beginning that there was a chance Credence was dead, but the confirmation leaves him far more distraught than he’d planned. He’s fighting back tears when Newt returns with the teapot to top off his cup, and it’s then that Newt leans in conspiratorially and says something that changes everything.

“You know, I’m not certain he’s dead.”


End file.
